Nothing new here, really. As they say, to each his own.
To quote my first MMA article published online, “(M)ixed martial arts is not everyone’s cup of tea—served in hot water flavored by the spectacle of two athletes engaged in hand-to-hand combat, each trying to dispose of the other using a variety of grappling and striking techniques. Physical pain is its main infusion, and blood and bruises are natural extractions.
“It is violence against a fellowman or woman but of an amoral kind, a contest between two consenting adults bound by legal contract to beat each other to submission. It is hyped as ‘the world’s fastest growing sport,’ its fan base growing exponentially since the first UFC event was televised in 1993, proof that it is now the entertainment of choice of millions of mostly adult males across the globe.” (Why do MMA fighters enter their profession? June 16, 2010)
Still, even among combat athletes from the other and more “specialized” sports, e.g. boxing, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there are those who do not necessarily take to MMA like fish to water. (Though, I assume most of them are happy watching, anyway.)
This leaves many to ponder on “what-if-this-and-that-great-athlete-trains-and-fights-in-MMA?”
We may have prospective Olympic medalists and top amateur athletes in mind who could give UFC titlists a run for their money, and belts, in the future.
But that’s if and only if they start to train, then fight and eventually register a distinguished winning record in professional MMA.
In case we wonder why there seems to be a dearth of top wrestlers from Russia—the world’s strongest wrestling country—transitioning to MMA, maybe we can find the answer from its most famous wrestler.
Alexander “The Experiment” Karelin, the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler ever, when asked about his past foray into MMA (some say it was a “worked” professional wrestling bout) against Akira Maeda, answered rather tangentially, “The top priority of any athlete is to win the Olympic gold medal.”
It could stem from a belief and fidelity to a different value system, like believing more in the Olympic movement and its ideals than in professional, and highly commercialized, sports.
In the same way that legendary Cuban amateur boxer and three-time Olympic gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson refused to turn pro and fight Muhammad Ali in the 1970s, saying,”What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?”
And that becoming a professional athlete is tantamount to betraying the Cuban revolution and socialism. (I won’t comment on that.)
Also, one plausible reason is that, in some countries, government support for elite amateur athletes could be more than enough to financially sustain them and their families.
Thus, the lure of venturing into another sport like MMA—amateur or professional—is not so appealing.
To some, it’s the “comparative safety” issue.
World-renowned Brazilian Jiujitsu Master Jean Jacques Machado would rather compete in BJJ than MMA because he finds the latter too brutal and damaging to the human body. He even cited the wear and tear suffered by Rickson Gracie from fighting in the sport.
Thousands of years ago, a wrestler (some say “champion”) of the Isthmian Games during the Ancient Greek Olympics commented that pankration, MMA’s predecessor, was ”devoid of aesthetics.”
And he is, “incidentally,” Plato, the great philosopher.
De gustibus non est disputandum. In English: “In matters of taste there is no dispute.”
So some love and fight in MMA, and some don’t and won’t.
Well, that’s just the way it is.
I think we have Manny Pacquiao’s future MMA equivalent lurking here somewhere…for those interested in Philippine MMA, check out here the official website of our country’s premier MMA organization, the Universal Reality Combat Championship and our top MMA online forum at PinoyMMA.com.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com